"Appointment in the plastic clinic for a fractured finger"

I have walked out while waiting for my appointment in the plastic clinic for a fractured finger. I waited for 3 hours and it seemed I was no closer to being seen. People seemed to be coming in after me with the same injury needing splinting, and they were being called in within an hour. I was the last one from the 9:30am slot still waiting.

My parking had almost reached its limit as the bays on the street are only a maximum of 3 hours. I also couldn't afford anymore parking as I had already paid $17 for the spot I was in, and only have $28 in my bank account (I am on DSP). Your staff had no options for me. Nowhere affordable to park, nowhere easy to park (so I wasn't called in while driving around in circles looking for parking), no system to deal with unfair parking fines, nothing. When I had 20 minutes left of parking, they couldn't even tell me how long the actual appointment would take, so I could not be sure if I would get fined or not. Zero honesty and information, in my opinion.

I told them if I have to leave to move my car to avoid a fine, I am not coming back. Even people in the waiting room stood up for me, as they overheard them tell me for 40 minutes straight "there's only 1 person ahead of you" several times. When it was very clear that I wasn't going to be called in.

I am disgusted that it seems staff were not honest with me. Had they been honest and told me I was nowhere close to being seen, I could have moved my car a lot sooner and taken a break from the waiting room. I now have an untreated broken finger.

Based on my experience, I feel you need to tell the city of Perth to extend the times on street parking, create more on-hospital parking, stop overloading the clinics, or have a more fair waiting system.

Also bear in mind, those with complex medical issues like myself (cystic fibrosis, diabetes, bilateral lung transplant) who have been in the hospital system since birth are sick to death of being seemingly treated like we don't matter, and like we were just born to wait in a waiting room. Things like this make me want to quit my nursing degree. Why would I help a system that apparently won't help me? In my opinion, your actions impact us more than you think.